This meeting discussed the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) references to x-ray fluorescence (XRF) testing for lead in painted children’s products. This meeting was intended to provide an opportunity for representatives of technology providers and testing laboratories to demonstrate and/or discuss technical information related to the potential capability of their instruments, software, and methodologies to perform sufficiently accurate and reproducible testing of painted consumer products to determine compliance of either small areas of paint or in the general case of painted children’s products.

Additional topics for discussion included 1) information and means for the Commission to evaluate the effectiveness, precision, and reliability of XRF technology and other alternative methods for measuring lead in paint or other surface coatings when used on a children’s product or furniture article in order to determine compliance with part 1303 of title 16, Code of Federal Regulations, as modified by the CPSIA; 2) the authority of the Commission, as stated in the CPSIA, to rely on XRF technology or other alternative methods for measuring lead in paint or other surface coatings on products subject to 16 CFR § 1303.1, where the total weight of such paint or surface coating is no greater than 10 milligrams or where such paint or surface coating covers no more than 1 square centimeter of the surface area of such products.